House prices hit record high
The Waikato housing market ended 2020 with a new record median house price, the eighth consecutive month of new or equal record prices.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) December 2020 data revealed that Hamilton City house prices were up 20.7 per cent on the year earlier, with a new record median price of $730,000. This was also an increase of 5.5 per cent on November 2020.
Hauraki District and O¯ torohanga District also recorded new record median prices in December of $540,000 and $480,000, year-on-year increases of 30.1 per cent and 11.6 per cent respectively.
The median price for the wider Waikato region was $675,000, a 17.4 per cent increase on the year earlier.
REINZ Regional Director Neville
Falconer said it was the eighth consecutive month of new or equal record median prices.
‘‘This was the result of double-digit percentage price increased in all districts bar Matamata-Piako and O¯ torohanga,’’ he said.
‘‘Waikato had the highest sales count for a December month in 16 years, reaching 894, up 39.5 per cent from the same time last year (641).’’
Listings were up 36.3 per cent in December with 537 properties coming to the market, however, with the high levels of sales volumes, overall inventory for the region was down 40.0 per cent year-on-year to 789, the lowest level of inventory since records began.
He said that for some buyers however, accessing finance had been difficult, especially in the lead up to Christmas, ‘‘however, we are hoping this will improve in the New Year’’.
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said that for the fourth month in a row, New Zealand had seen house prices hit new records.
‘‘Additionally, eleven regions and 27 districts saw record high median prices, a continuation of the pattern we’ve seen in the housing market for the last few months, highlighting how strong the residential housing market is in all parts of the country.’’
Norwell said that at present, there is just half of the inventory level available compared to December 2018.
‘‘There just isn’t enough choice for people looking to purchase a house which has meant that there is significant pressure being placed on house prices in most parts of the country,’’ she said.
‘‘Today’s figures further highlight that we urgently need a combined response from Government and industry to solve the housing affordability issues the country is facing.’’
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An art expert says the recent theft of a valuable New Zealand painting is ‘‘rare, stupid and disrespectful’’.
And another expert says there’s a risk the antique work could be ‘‘badly damaged’’ after being stolen.
A Charles Frederick Goldie painting, called Sleep ‘tis a Gentle Thing, was taken from a Hamilton East home between December 27 2020 and January 3 2021.
International
Art Centre director
Richard Thomson
sold a version of the painting at an
Auckland auction in 2008, and it sold for $454,000.
He told Stuff the theft was ‘‘very rare, very stupid and very disrespectful for our cultural heritage’’.
The 1933 work depicts Nga¯ ti Maru and Nga¯ ti Pa¯ oa chief Hori Pokai, painted when Goldie was 63.
Thomson was unsure whether the version he sold was the stolen one, because there could be about three similar versions of the painting in New Zealand.
‘‘It was not uncommon for Goldie to paint subjects multiple times.
‘‘He painted Kapi Kapi who was a survivor of the Tawarewa eruption up to 25 times for example,’’ Thomson said.
Art crime expert Penelope Jackson said these historic paintings were antiques, very vulnerable to damage.
In a famous case of New Zealand art theft, an 1873 James Tissot painting Still on Top was stolen from Auckland Art Gallery in the 1990s.
‘‘When it was found it was basically butchered.
‘‘It took the conservator two years to put back together, it was so badly damaged.’’
Jackson wrote the book Art Thieves, Fakers & Fraudsters: The New Zealand Story, and said while art crime was huge internationally, it happened in this country too.
In 2017, thieves took off with two Gottfried Lindauer paintings in a smash and grab heist at the International Art Centre in Parnell.
‘‘They smashed the window, there was glass involved, and there was speed, there were vehicles, we know all of that from the CCTV.’’
Both of those paintings were about 113 years old, Jackson said.
Art thieves were often motivated by ‘‘greed’’.
‘‘Goldie is a big name, it’s like internationally someone wants a Rembrandt, in New Zealand it’s a Goldie or a Lindauer.’’
‘‘They’re very coveted, they’re very collectable.’’
But any offender who assumes this Goldie painting is their ticket to a big fortune will have trouble on-selling it now.
‘‘Anyone who’s going to spend big money on a Goldie only has to do a quick google search and it’s going to pop up as stolen.’’
There was not as much appetite for Goldie’s work overseas if thieves had designs to sell it offshore, Jackson said.
It’s not the first time a Goldie work has been stolen in New Zealand.
About 15 years ago an elderly couple had their own Goldie pinched from their Mosgiel home.
‘‘They were having an open day to sell their home, a few weeks later they realised the Goldie they had – which had been handed down through the family – had gone from their spare bedroom.’’
If never recovered, the loss of the painting would be ‘‘terrible’’ for the owners and wider New Zealand public.
‘‘It’s taking something out of circulation too, works in private collections can be called on for public exhibitions, so it deprives all of us.’’
Waikato police are still investigating the theft at the Hamilton East home, where several other artworks and antiques were taken.
In a statement, detective senior sergeant Andrew Saunders said police were ‘‘continuing to follow lines of inquiry’’.
‘‘At this stage there is nothing to suggest a link between this complaint and any other instances of art theft in New Zealand.’’
If any member of the public has information on the theft they can call Police on 105, quoting file number 210103/296, or contact Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
‘‘Goldie is a big name, it’s like internationally someone wants a Rembrandt, in New Zealand it’s a Goldie or a Lindauer. They’re very coveted, they’re very collectable.’’
Art crime expert Penelope Jackson